Early lead exposure linked to teens’ injury risk
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Teenagers whose blood levels of lead were relatively high as children may be more prone to falls and injuries, a preliminary study suggests.
The findings, reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health, may add to the list of health consequences of childhood lead exposure. The toxic metal is already known to be particularly dangerous for young children and fetuses, as even low-level exposure can damage the developing brain and cause learning and behavioral problems.
Based on what’s known about the metal’s effects on the nervous system, it’s possible that lead exposure could affect children’s long-term injury risk by harming their balance, coordination and other neuromuscular skills, according to the authors of the new study.
Some research has also linked elevated lead levels to certain behavioral problems in ADHD, and to brain processes involved in attention and impulse control, Dr. Laurel D. Kincl, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
Such effects could contribute to teenagers’ injury risk, noted Kincl, a researcher at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
The study included 89 teenagers who were born in a Cincinnati neighborhood with a high rate of childhood lead poisoning. They were part of a larger research project that monitored their blood lead levels from birth through early childhood.
Kincl and her colleagues surveyed the teenagers about any sprains, fractures or other accidental injuries they’d suffered since the age of 14. They found that as childhood lead levels climbed, so did the likelihood of suffering an injury in adolescence.
Falls accounted for nearly half of the injuries overall, and teens with relatively higher lead levels as children were at greater risk of hurting themselves due to a fall or loss of balance.
Among teens with more-severe injuries—ones that limited their activities for four or more days—the average childhood lead level was 15.7 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL), versus 12.4 mcg/dL among their peers.
Similarly, teens who’d sustained any injuries had a somewhat higher childhood lead level than those who reported no injuries.
Kincl said these findings must be considered preliminary, and further research is needed to establish whether and why lead exposure might boost injury risk.
It’s also unclear how high childhood lead levels would have to be to affect a child’s vulnerability to injury, according to Kincl.
Among all teens in this study, the average childhood lead level was 13 mcg/dL, just surpassing what health officials consider the “level of concern” for lead in the bloodstream—10 mcg/dL. But other studies, Kincl noted, have found evidence of health effects below this level of concern.
SOURCE: Journal of Adolescent Health, October 2006.
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